


Ojin Gyaru

by Samuraiter



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 13:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1005991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samuraiter/pseuds/Samuraiter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set two years after the anime. Gou and Nagisa trade long-held secrets, discovering that doing so might change things a little for everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ojin Gyaru

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DivineSquishy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineSquishy/gifts).



> The title comes from a wink-and-nudge reading of this definition:
> 
> _Ojin gyaru_. The geezer girl. This girl is believed by many to be a dangerous new phenomenon. First, she is not girlish. On top of this, she hangs out in bars frequented by middle-aged men, cultivates gruff manly speech, smokes, holds her liquor well, and in general has what are regarded as mature, masculine interests in Japan – drinking, golf, and an aggressive interest in the opposite sex.  
>  — _Japanese Street Slang_ , Peter Constantine

No one had offered Gou a second glance on the train. Two years ago, that might have dented her self-confidence, caused her to question her game for the night, but she had learned not to second-guess herself. She had looked at herself in the mirror, and she had decided that she looked good. Damn good, in fact. She had a mission for the night, and she had done it up to the nines – to the _nines_ – for her date. Except that Gou, for all her self-confidence, had dressed herself up as a man. And her date, Nagisa? If all had gone to plan, he was waiting for her at his house ... in a yellow dress.

After their _senpai_ on the Iwatobi swim team had graduated, Nagisa – not Chigusa or Ama-sensei, for once – had offered to escort her home after the resulting party, and they had a heart-to-heart talk along the way. It had been the first time she had seen him drop his happy-go-lucky façade and talk about _himself_ , for a change. She had met all three of his sisters before, yes, but, on that night, he discussed his brother for the first time – his _late_ brother, Amago. And Gou had learned that Amago had been a major reason Nagisa had decided to more or less adopt his teammates as a second family.

Amago had been hit by a car and killed while he was trying to cross the street, and that had happened long before Nagisa had met Haruka and the others. Gou had realized, upon hearing that, that he had told none of them about it, and she asked herself, then, what him taking her into his confidence like that might mean. That had prompted her to blurt the real reason she preferred not to go by the name _Gou_ in public – a secret that might not have the same value as the tragedy Nagisa had shared, in her opinon, but one that she had likewise not imparted to anybody in her life before.

And Nagisa had listened patiently as she explained that she liked to think of _Gou_ as a male persona that she adopted on the rare occasion she was alone at home. _Kou_ could be the high school girl, the swim team manager, the one who had stars in her eyes as she stammered her admiration of a fine set of triceps. But Gou? _Gou_ represented a different side of herself, a side that wanted to possess what Kou only admired, a lean and hungry look from under the brim of a hat, thumbs jammed into pockets, unlit cigarette dangling from one corner of her – no, _his_ – mouth. _That_ was Gou.

Not only had Nagisa absorbed all of that, but he had been the one to suggest the date in the first place, including the dress. (Not _once_ had he said he dressed as a girl on a regular basis, but ... Gou had her suspicions.) Since they had traded their secrets, he had offered to help hers blossom, inviting her to go into public in her male persona and take him along for the ride. One day, they might both tell the others about both Amago and the _other_ Gou, as Nagisa put it, but they decided to start by figuring those things out together, at least until Rei – not graduated yet – got a clue about them.

No. Not Rei alone. Rei and one other. Gou could feel the postcard in one pocket of the oversized burgundy jacket – it might have been formal in its first life, but it had acquired a rumpled, hangdog character over the years – she had adopted for the night. She had texted Rin to say that she and Nagisa had a date. That had been all. No details. Unlike Rei, though, Rin managed to see the forest for the trees and send her that postcard, saying only, in his aggressive, sharp-angled script, that he thought she made a good groom for Nagisa. Had he always suspected – ? It made her grin to herself.

The door opened in front of her. Instead of standing straight in front of it, she leaned against the frame, one hand on her tie, the other adjusting the brim of her fedora for full effect. She thought Nagisa might laugh a little at her posturing, but, instead, he smiled at her – warm, gentle, and familiar. It then took her a second to realize that the yellow dress fit him so perfectly that he could effortlessly pass for female, and that was _before_ she accounted for the full effect of make-up, posture, and everything else he had rolled into the part he wished to play – a part that he played to perfection, it seemed.

"My sisters liked to dress me up when I was a kid," he said, the change he made to his voice so subtle that Gou did not notice it at first, "but I think it stuck. Oh, well." A shrug, playful and nonchalant. "Shall we go, Gou-kun?" A wink. He made it look cute. She had to suppress the urge to giggle, preferring instead to let the other Gou drive the situation, seizing Nagisa by the hand and striding down the sidewalk at a speed that he almost had to job to match. (Hard to do that in high heels, but he managed.) His eyes had a brightness to them – a _release_ , she wanted to call it – that she had not seen before.

Everything was going to change. They had to tell Rei, first of all, and, after him, the others, once they returned from university for their holidays. But Gou had no desire to worry herself about those things, that first night. She and Nagisa had to get to dinner, setting aside that it was going to consist of a beef bowl, a soda, and a shared box of Pocky from her jacket pocket. (A part-time job did not the five-star restaurant make, after all.) They had to talk with their roles flipped from what they normally were. She could not quite say why, but she found that prospect exhilarating.

Judging from the gleam Nagisa had in his eyes, so did he.

**END**.


End file.
